Android Auto Gadget Review

Hands-on with Android’s in-car experience

iOS and Android
increasingly widen into any indentation and dilemma of a tech, either it
be a TVs or a home’s thermostat. One some-more area they’re doing battle
is in cars. Apple launched a CarPlay complement final year, yet Google has recently fought behind with Android Auto.

While
both companies’ categorical aim is attracting large automobile manufacturers to confederate and
support their systems, aftermarket brands such as Pioneer are removing in
on a act too. It was a initial code to marketplace with CarPlay,
and it’s a initial to support Android Auto in a systems. It invited us
along to have a go with a initial Android Auto system, to see what it’s
like to use.

I
have to start with some bad news, though. If we suspicion upgrading your
car’s complement with Android Auto would be easy, Google’s preference to
require a 6.5-inch smallest shade distance means it’s a pricey upgrade.

Pioneer’s
cheapest Android Auto complement is a AVIC-F70DAB pictured, that costs
around £700 to £800. It supports CarPlay as well, and has all a bells
and whistles of a top-end in-car system, yet Pioneer’s cheapest CarPlay
system costs usually £350. Pioneer tells us cheaper Android Auto systems
will come during a after date, yet for now you’ll have to compensate by the
nose to get it.

There’s
a high separator to entrance then, yet Android Auto creates a really good first
impression. The opening homescreen is suggestive of Google Now. Slim
cards summarize a many new events, such as messages received, calls
done and locations you’ve searched for or navigated to.

You can
scroll adult and down a list and reminders will seem here too, yet you
can’t appropriate to boot them like we do on a phone. This is since the
interface, like CarPlay, is designed with an eye on safety, so it tries
to keep distractions and formidable interface options to a minimum.

Related: Apple CarPlay vs Android Auto

It
offers a same simple facilities as CarPlay, too. Navigation, calls,
messaging and song are a categorical features, any permitted around shortcut
buttons along a bottom of a screen. But Google’s trump label is its
voice search, that gets a distinguished by-pass in a tip corner.

While
it does basis like Siri does, Google’s higher hunt means it’s
better during giving we information on a go. For instance, ask it how far
it is between London and Glasgow and it will tell you, reading the
answer out loud.

The
usually place we can use content submit is on a navigation system, where
you can use a keyboard instead of voice to hunt for locations. But
you can’t form messages and any messages we do accept are review aloud
rather than displaying on a screen. Another reduction is we can only
hunt for contacts regulating voice – we can’t corkscrew by a list and
select them.

Music apps upheld embody Google Play Music,
Spotify, Radioplayer (UK only) and Tune-in Radio. They all demeanour and work
remarkably similarly, that is no accident. The simple thought is that each
app works in a similar, predicted way, so you’re not focused on
remembering how any app works.

While this does frame some of the
some-more modernized facilities from apps, it creates them easy to use. You can
use voice hunt to hunt and play specific songs or artists, and you
can even mention that song app we wish to play in.

Early Verdict

There’s
zero generally adorned about Android Auto, yet for a complement that’s
just a few months aged it looks and feels utterly mature and polished. It’s
a contrition that aftermarket systems are so costly right now, yet so distant it
feels like a some-more cohesive, appealing complement than Apple CarPlay.